What To Collect From a Client Before The First AI Draft

The first AI draft is early when the only brief you have is the client's category. "We are a clinic" produces a clinic. It does not produce their clinic. Collect the material the draft has to quote, and put it on their profile before you generate anything a customer might see.

Our article, How to Build a Personal Knowledge Vault for AI, is the argument for storing this at all. This page is the intake list. Our article, How Social Media Managers Can Use AI Without Losing Client Voice, is the standard you hold the draft to after the list is filled. Our article, What Is TheAlterMeAI, is where each answer goes.

One Profile, Then The Brand Kit

Open one profile for this client. A second client gets a second profile. The draft, the proof, and the accounts stay inside the profile you have open.

Then collect the brand kit: logo, colours, and type. Magic Studio, Compose, and email all read it. A draft that is on-voice and off-brand still looks like the wrong company.

The Questions That Change The Draft

Ask these in the kickoff. Write the answers in their words. A paraphrase you invented is a second brand voice.

1. What they do, who they serve, and the pain. Specific beats short. "We help Lagos retail brands answer WhatsApp enquiries the same day" is usable. "We do marketing" is not. This is Business & audience. Pick up to three industry categories so later drafts and influencer matching stay on topic.
2. What they sell, who each offer is for, and the price. An offer with no price produces a draft that flirts with the sale and never makes it.
3. Proof they will put their name on. A number, a customer name, an outcome. If they will not publish it, it does not go in the vault, and the draft must not invent a stand-in.
4. One customer story, before and after, in the customer's words. A story you cleaned up until it sounds like a case study has already lost the voice.
5. The questions people ask before they buy, and the answer the brand wants repeated. Objections are the raw material for replies, not only for posts.
6. A belief they would defend that a competitor would not say. That is positioning. Without it, every draft can be swapped onto another brand in the same industry.
7. How they sound, the phrases they never use, and any disclosure they must include. "We never say 'synergy'" belongs here. So does a required line about results, licensing, or sponsorship.

Our article, A Knowledge Vault checklist for a new client profile, is the same list as tabs you can tick. Use the checklist once the kickoff notes exist. Use this page to decide what to ask for.

What You Can Draft Without, And What You Cannot

You can draft a single introductory post from Business & audience plus the brand kit, and you should label it as a first try. You cannot draft a month. A month needs offers, proof, and at least one story, or the calendar repeats the same claim in different clothes.

You also cannot draft replies. A reply that misses the objection they hear every day is the post most likely to be seen by a real buyer. Collect objections before you turn on reply help.

Where "Send Me Your Logo" Goes Wrong

Logo, colours, and a login to their Instagram are the usual kickoff packet. They are enough to publish. They are not enough to sound like the client. Ask for the seven answers in the same email as the logo. A client who can find the logo can find one price, one result, and one sentence they refuse to say.

Our article, How to write a social media proposal that lists the work, not the tool, should name this intake as week one, so the client expects the questions before they expect a full calendar.

Create your account, open their profile, and fill Store Knowledge from the kickoff notes. Generate the first post after the proof and the never-say list are in. The draft gets one chance to sound like them. A second chance is a revision you are no longer billing as strategy.